Denominations

Free Methodist Church

Christianity

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "Free Methodist Church." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.divinityatlas.com/denominations/free-methodist-church.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). Free Methodist Church. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://www.divinityatlas.com/denominations/free-methodist-church

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-free-methodist-church,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {Free Methodist Church},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://www.divinityatlas.com/denominations/free-methodist-church},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Origin 1860

The Free Methodist Church was organized on August 23, 1860, at Pekin, New York, by Benjamin Titus Roberts and fellow ministers expelled or withdrawn from the Methodist Episcopal Church over Roberts's opposition to pew rents, his support for lay and women's participation in ministry, and his criticism of what he saw as the parent church's coolness toward revivalism and entire sanctification. The new church took the name Free Methodist for its stand against slavery, rented pews, and secret societies, and for its commitment to free, open seating for all worshippers. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, it now reports well over a million members worldwide, the great majority of them outside the United States.

Facts

Belief

Defining Doctrinal Positionthe subject's own account

Trinitarian: one God in three persons 1Christianity

Doctrinal Standardsthe subject's own account

The Free Methodist Articles of Religion, which state entire sanctification as an article in its own right rather than leaving it to Wesley's sermons. 1

Position on Entire Sanctificationthe subject's own account

An instantaneous second work of grace, subsequent to regeneration: the consecrated believer, on exercising faith in the atoning blood of Christ, is cleansed in that moment from all inward sin and empowered for service. The American Holiness position, written into this church's own articles of religion rather than left to Wesley's sermons. 1

Position on Sexuality

Same-sex sexual relationships are held contrary to teaching; LGBT individuals are welcomed as members but not ordained, and same-sex unions are not blessed 2

the subject's own accountThe Free Methodist Church USA's Study Commission on Doctrine states homosexual behavior cannot be seen as part of God's intended role for human sexual expression, regardless of a person's attraction, and that the church will not accord a same-sex relationship the status it holds for God's intended design for marriage and intimacy, and will not perform a same-sex union or marriage. Church membership is described as open to anyone who has received Christ's forgiveness, is committed to growing discipleship and commits to live out the Articles of Religion and Membership Covenant, without naming sexual orientation itself as a separate bar, and ordination eligibility is not addressed directly.

Sexuality Position Detailthe subject's own account

Bishop Matthew Thomas' 20 December 2016 statement for the Study Commission on Doctrine states: homosexual behavior cannot be seen as part of God's intended role for human sexual expression, regardless of a person's attraction. We will not accord same-sex relationships the status the church holds for God's intended design for marriage and intimacy. We will not, in other words, perform same sex unions or marriages. The church receives into membership only those who have received Christ's forgiveness and redemption, are committed to a life of growing discipleship, acknowledge God's pattern of health for the believer and commit to live out the membership covenant of the Free Methodist Church, without a separate stated rule naming sexual orientation as its own bar to that covenant. 2

Origins

Origin Periodthe subject's own account

1860 1

Place of Originthe subject's own account

Pekin, New York 1

Founderthe subject's own account

Benjamin Titus Roberts (1823-1893) 1

Practice

Liturgical Languagethe subject's own account

The vernacular 1

Status

Status Todaythe subject's own account

Living tradition, practised today 1

Trajectory

Membership Over Timethe subject's own account

The Free Methodist Church reported a worldwide membership of more than one million people by the end of 2011, including roughly 1,000 congregations and more than 76,000 members in the United States, a church-reported figure from the denomination's own history. 1

Membership Over Timethe subject's own account

The Free Methodist Church's own 2022 Yearbook recorded 1,547,820 members worldwide, continued growth from the 2011 figure driven mostly outside the United States, where the denomination's own domestic membership has been declining over the past decade. 1

Membership Figure As Ofthe subject's own account

2011-01-01 1

Membership Figure As Ofthe subject's own account

2022-01-01 1

Basis of the Membership Figurethe subject's own account

Church-Reported Rolls 1

History

Separation or Divergencethe subject's own account

The Methodist Episcopal Church, which expelled Roberts in 1858 amid disputes over pew rents, women's ministry, and revivalism 1

Date of Separationthe subject's own account

from 1858 1

Organisation

Governance

Connexional: congregations bound in a conference with itinerant ministry 1

the subject's own accountConnexional: conferences and general superintendents under a General Conference

Episcopal Tenurethe subject's own account

Led by three bishops in the United States. Lay delegates sit in equal number with the clergy in the councils of the church, a check on episcopal power that the founders were pressing for when they were expelled from the Methodist Episcopal Church, and which was built in at the founding rather than conceded later. 1

Ordination

Open to women and men 1

the subject's own accountOpen to women in ordained ministry since 1974

Reach

Adherents Todaythe subject's own account

1,500,000 1

Finances

Financial Disclosure Regime

The Free Methodist Church of North America is recognized by the US Internal Revenue Service as a church and is not required to file the Form 990 return most other tax exempt organizations file. ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer database holds no such filing for it, and no other consolidated public financial statement was located in this pass. 3

In Other Languages (7 names)

Learn More

B.T. Roberts, and an Argument Over Free Pews

The Free Methodist Church began in a dispute inside the Methodist Episcopal Church over practices that its founder, Benjamin Titus Roberts (1823-1893), believed had drifted from Wesleyan roots. As a pastor in western New York, Roberts published articles criticizing the growing practice of renting pews to wealthier congregants, a system he saw as excluding the poor from full participation in worship, and he argued for restoring the plain, revivalist, holiness-centered Methodism of John Wesley's own day, including the ministry of women and open opposition to slavery. His outspokenness led to a series of ecclesiastical trials, and in 1858 the Genesee Conference expelled him from the ministry.

Roberts and other sympathetic ministers who had likewise been disciplined or had resigned in protest gathered supporters over the following two years, and on August 23, 1860, about sixty of them, fifteen preachers and forty-five laypeople, met in an orchard at Pekin, New York, to organize a new denomination. They named it the Free Methodist Church, choosing free to signal freedom from slavery, from rented pews, from secret lodge memberships they considered incompatible with Christian fellowship, and from the formalism they believed had crept into revival worship. Roberts was elected the new church's first general superintendent.

Holiness, Missions, and a Mostly Global Church Today

From its founding, the Free Methodist Church combined Wesleyan Holiness doctrine, especially the teaching of entire sanctification, with a strong institutional commitment to education and overseas missions. Roberts himself founded a preparatory school in North Chili, New York, in 1866 that grew into Roberts Wesleyan College, and the denomination went on to build an extensive network of colleges and mission fields across Africa, Asia, and Latin America over the following century and a half.

That missionary expansion transformed the church's makeup: by the twenty-first century roughly 95 percent of Free Methodists lived outside the United States, with the denomination reporting a worldwide membership of about 1.5 million against only around 60,000 to 70,000 in the United States itself. The church retains the connexional structure of its Methodist origin, governed by conferences and general superintendents under a General Conference, and its ordained ministry has been open to women since 1974, extending a commitment to women's ministry that dates to Roberts's own founding arguments. It also sponsors a network of affiliated colleges founded to train ministers and educators in the Wesleyan Holiness tradition, including Spring Arbor University in Michigan and Seattle Pacific University in Washington, alongside Roberts Wesleyan. Its administrative offices are based in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Free Methodist Church (Wikipedia)

This source names Free Methodist Church directly: "This is the Wikipedia article on the Free Methodist Church, a Wesleyan holiness denomination, an open, crowd-edited tertiary reference rather than a scholarly history or the denomination's own..."

Source Free Methodist Church (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, Free Methodist Church Of North America (EIN 31-0990655)

This source names Free Methodist Church directly: "Nonprofit Explorer database record for Free Methodist Church Of North America, stating that no Form 990 data is held for the organization because the Internal Revenue Service designates it as a..."

Source ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, Free Methodist Church Of North America (EIN 31-0990655)ProPublica

Superintendent

This source names Free Methodist Church directly: "Wesley kept the original term: the Free Methodist Church and the Wesleyan Church both call their chief officers general superintendents today, and every major Methodist body still uses district..."

Source The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist ChurchUnited Methodist Churchthe holders' own account

The Free Methodist Church's Response to Sexuality and Sexual Orientation (Study Commission on Doctrine)

This source names Free Methodist Church directly: "Published on the Free Methodist Church USA's Study Commission on Doctrine site 20 December 2016, authored by Bishop Matthew Thomas."

Source The Free Methodist Church's Response to Sexuality and Sexual Orientation (Study Commission on Doctrine)the holders' own account

The Hymn Book of the Free Methodist Church (Wesleyan Holiness Digital Library, Seattle Pacific University)

This source names Free Methodist Church directly: "copy of the 1883 Hymn Book of the Free Methodist Church together with a description of Bishop W."

Source The Hymn Book of the Free Methodist Church (Wesleyan Holiness Digital Library, Seattle Pacific University)Free Methodist Church; W. T. Hogue; B. T. Roberts

Kept in the Free Methodist Church. The Articles of Religion hold that there are two sacraments ordained of Christ, and that the other five are not to be counted for sacraments of the Gospel.

Veneration of icons

Kept in the Free Methodist Church. The Articles name the worshipping and adoration of images and of relics as a fond thing vainly invented.

Veneration of saints and Mary

Kept in the Free Methodist Church. The Articles name the invocation of saints in the same place, and Methodist prayer is addressed to God alone.

Derived From

Holiness Movement

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Methodism

A Holiness body of Methodist descent.

Source Free Methodist Church (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Holds Element

A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists

A Methodist body of the holiness stream, whose hymnal draws its core from the Wesleyan repertory.

Source The Works of John Wesley, Volume 7: A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called MethodistsFranz Hildebrandt and Oliver A. Beckerlegge (editors)

Held Differently

Temperance

The Free Methodist Church was founded in part on a stricter reading of Wesleyan discipline, abstinence among its marks.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Predestination and free will

Source Free Methodist Church (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Rejected Here

The Synod of Dort

Refused, on the Arminian ground the Methodist churches hold in common.

Source The Sermons of John WesleyJohn Wesley

Objects and Practices of This Tradition

Advent

Almsgiving / Charity

Kept in the Free Methodist Church. Works of mercy stand beside works of piety in the Methodist account of the Christian life, and neither is optional.

Arminianism (free will and universal atonement)

Baptism

Kept in the Free Methodist Church. Baptism is administered by sprinkling, pouring or immersion, the mode being left to the person receiving it, which is unusual among the churches that baptise infants.

Baptismal life

Kept in the Free Methodist Church. Baptism is understood as the sign of the new covenant and the beginning of a life of grace to be grown into, not a moment complete in itself.

Christian perfection (entire sanctification)

Christmas

Collect for Purity

Kept in the Free Methodist Church.

Confirmation

Kept in the Free Methodist Church. Confirmation is the profession of faith by which a baptised person is received into full membership, and it is not held to be a sacrament.

Connexionalism

Easter

Ecclesiastical Polity and the Validity of Holy Orders

Source Free Methodist Church (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Entire Sanctification

Source Free Methodist Church (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Episcopal church governance

Fasting

Kept in the Free Methodist Church. Fasting is one of the means of grace, and Wesley kept the Friday fast himself and pressed it on the societies.

Funeral Rites

Kept in the Free Methodist Church. The Service of Death and Resurrection is the modern form of the burial office and takes its name from what it is meant to proclaim.

Gloria Patri

Kept in the Free Methodist Church.

Good Friday

Holy Orders

Kept in the Free Methodist Church. Ordination is to the orders of deacon and elder. The episcopacy is an office to which an elder is elected and consecrated, not a third order, which is the settled Methodist difference from Anglican practice.

Infant Baptism and Christening

Kept in the Free Methodist Church. Infants are baptised, and the service places the congregation under a vow to nurture the child.

Intinction

Kept in the Free Methodist Church. Intinction is the ordinary manner of receiving in many congregations, and it follows from the use of unfermented grape juice in a common cup.

Justification by faith alone (sola fide)

Liturgical Colors

Kept in the Free Methodist Church. The liturgical colours were retained from the Anglican inheritance and are set out in the modern service books.

Marriage Ceremony

Kept in the Free Methodist Church. The marriage service descends from the Prayer Book by way of Wesley's abridgement of it for the American societies.

Observing the Sabbath

Kept in the Free Methodist Church. Sunday is kept for public worship, and the General Rules bind members to attend upon the ordinances of God.

Open communion

Ordination of Women

Source Free Methodist Church (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Pentecost

Prayer

Kept in the Free Methodist Church. Prayer stands among the means of grace Wesley called the works of piety, alongside searching the scriptures, the Lord's Supper and fasting.

Prayer of Humble Access

Kept in the Free Methodist Church.

Salvation by grace

Subscription to a confession of faith

The Anaphora

Kept in the Free Methodist Church. The Great Thanksgiving is a full anaphora, restored to Methodist worship in the twentieth century after two hundred years in which the Supper was celebrated from a much shorter form.

The Epiclesis

Kept in the Free Methodist Church. The Great Thanksgiving carries an explicit invocation of the Holy Spirit on the gifts and on the people, which the sixteenth-century English rite did not.

The Fraction

Kept in the Free Methodist Church. The breaking of the bread is a distinct action with its own words.

The Grace

Kept in the Free Methodist Church.

The Holy Trinity

The Hymn Book of the Free Methodist Church (1883)

Source The Hymn Book of the Free Methodist Church (Wesleyan Holiness Digital Library, Seattle Pacific University)Free Methodist Church; W. T. Hogue; B. T. Roberts

The Lord's Prayer

Kept in the Free Methodist Church.

The Mass / Eucharist

Kept in the Free Methodist Church. The Lord's Supper is celebrated as a means of grace and Wesley pressed constant communion on the societies, though quarterly celebration became the practice for most of Methodist history for want of ordained ministers.

The ordination of women

The resurrection of Christ

The Second Definite Work of Grace

Source Free Methodist Church (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

The Words of Institution

Kept in the Free Methodist Church. The words of institution stand within the Great Thanksgiving.

Sources

1. Free Methodist Church (Wikipedia)

Wikipedia contributors, WikipediaWhole articleView the Source

2. The Free Methodist Church's Response to Sexuality and Sexual Orientation (Study Commission on Doctrine)

Free Methodist Church USA, Study Commission on Doctrine, 2016the stated position on sexuality and its supporting detailthe holders' own accountView the Source

3. ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, Free Methodist Church Of North America (EIN 31-0990655)

ProPublica, ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, 2026View the Source

The Sermons of John Wesley

John Wesley, Abingdon Press, 2013View the Source

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised edition

F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2005View the Source

The Works of John Wesley, Volume 7: A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists

Franz Hildebrandt and Oliver A. Beckerlegge (editors), Oxford University Press, 1983

Essays About This Entity (1 essay)

Eleven Bodies Read Temperance as a Wall, Not a Measure
Founded in part on a stricter reading of Wesleyan discipline, abstinence among its marks

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Free Methodist Church USAIndianapolis Verified

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